I do not own Gundam Seed anime, manga or any other materials.

Rau La Cruze was not by any means enjoying this operation to take out the Archangel, he knew that the leadership in the PLANTS made it perfectly clear, if you can not capture a unit, then destroy it. They could not allow the naturals to have any sort of advantage. He had to hold back his own words, as he wanted to scream at them, that having the ultimate coordinator serve with them as a mercenary was even more of an advantage than the new mobile suits combined. He knew why Patrick Zala had decided that, he knew that the coordinators on the front lines had begun to feel overconfident and stop training as they should. If they had a decent opponent this would motivate them, to either avenge their fallen soldiers, or train harder to just survive.

But he did not like it one bit, to him Kira was a younger brother. They both were born and were made in the same facility after all. He could not help but to worry about his kid brother, and wanting him to find some sort of happiness in the constant hell that was war. "When do we stop being people, and became tools for greedy, uncaring people? When will the naturals realize that it was their desire to improve and reach the highest summit that created people like us in the first place. Had they been content in how their maker had made them we would not even been made this way, and this ridiculous war would not have happened. But the naturals blame us, and they never will accept their own fault in the cause of this war. When will I and my precious brother be able to live simple, honest, and happy life? From what I see, not anywhere in the near future. But deep down inside I always hope, that the day will come. Peace ever as brief will come."

Yzak was pissed, Dearka was too, Nicol and Athrun were sad. "What in the word is going in the mind of that fool, Hey Athrun his is your brother. What is going on here? Why is Kira defending those lousy stupid naturals?" Yzak screamed at him. "I would not mind that answer too. How did our team leader suddenly become a traitor to the very people he swore to defend. I am sure poor little Nicol is positively heartbroken after being abandoned by his very own crush." Dearka told Athrun quickly as Yzak had asked his question. "I have no idea, but he wouldn't do it without a valid reason." Athrun defended his brother, but Nicol jumped in and grabbed Dearka by the neck. "Hey, how long are you going to keep calling me gay! I happen to be engaged to a very nice lady I'll have you know." Dearka retorted that they had never even met her, and he did not have a single picture of her. An engaged guy at least would have one picture of his loved one to inspire him. Yzak quickly told him that it was very suspicious how he would always jump right in to defend Kira, He even remembered that he played the piano for a lot of people in the academy events, and even designs frilly little dresses. Nicol was furious, "They happen to be wedding dresses. I am trying to open a business, and what is wrong with me playing the piano? If you keep calling me gay must be that you know so much what gay people like." Athrun was not amused at what was happening. "Stop saying things like that and do the decent thing and come out of the closet. Your kind are allowed in ZAFT after all." Dearka told him as a joke, but that was the straw that broke the camel's back. He punched Dearka hard on the stomach. "If you make another of those jokes, you can consider yourself a dead man!" Yzak was happy, almost smiling. "See, that is what you need. Get pissed, and stop treating everything with kid gloves. Show that fury in the battlefield and you will make that bride of your proud to have such a tough, talented man a her future husband." Nicol was still pissed, but understood what the whole thing had been. The teach was without Kira, and now they could be told to fight against their former friend and leader. This was hardly a good situation for anyone of them, specially for Athrun.

Rau had listened to all the exchange between the boys, and could not help but to laugh at some of the insinuations. He walked in and smiled, "Well, If you ladies have the time to play then I assume that the data and maintenance on the new mobile suits is done?" They all stood at attention, and told him ,"Sir, Yes, Sir." He smiled and told them to relax. "Look, you need to be familiar with the abilities and weapons of each of those suits, and quickly. You will sortie tomorrow and deal with the mobile suit that we failed to capture. There is also the possibility of the Zero and new ship providing back up to the mobile suit. JINN will be deployed with weapon configuration D" Athrun quickly looked at the captain hardly believing his words. "But, Sir, Weapon configuration D is for taking out fortresses. Isn't that over kill?" Rau looked at Athrun, "There is no such thing as over kill, if the colony is destroyed so be it. They made it a legitimate target as soon as they agreed to build those things there in the first place. Do you really think that the colonial computers do not have a blueprint on those machines?" The team realized what he was saying. They needed to destroy any possible place where blueprints could be stored, the ship and the mobile suit would be obvious places, but the colony could also be a remote possibility. "They destroyed Junius 7, it would be sheer hipocracy for them to cry foul if we ended up doing the same thing. The only exception is that in our case it is a legitimate target." Rau was telling them what they all were thinking too. But it didn't make the any easier to accept. They former leader should now be considered a traitor and new enemy, if someone told the boys this in the days of the academy, every single one of them would call that person a crazy person, or something to that effect. How much people change during war, and how much they forget those innocent days of the past. These were lessons that war teaches, but only if you live long enough to learn them.

Kira was having a very bad day, first he had killed several of his own people, in the defense of what could be called ungrateful morons. Chief Murdock and the bridge crew welcomed Kira's help with open arms for sure, but not a single one was not waiting for the kid, to betray them when he believed that they did not expect it. He did betray his own people, and if rumors were true his own family. They would consider themselves mentally handicapped if they could not expect the same or worse being done at them. Mercenaries were never known to be loyal, all they were where in terms of old days killers for hire. They valued only one thing and one thing only other than themselves,and that was their pay. If mercenary was paid enough he would torch an entire hospital full of children. The fact that Mu La Flaga was also telling anyone who asked who the kid was, he made no attempt to keep it hidden. The kid was the Shadow Felix of Petrovich. Mu probably was doing to reassure the crew and people on the ship that they had an extremely tough pilot guarding them. But the Shadow Felix was supposed to be extremely cruel, and efficient in combat situations. A real berserker with all the strength and fear that he caused.

Murrue was not happy to be in command of the Archangel, no to say that she was not happy would be an understatement. Her executive officer constantly made jokes about how much she acted like a giddy schoolgirl when she was dating in the colony. Natarle of course did it because she could never quite get over the fact that the fabled Shadow Felix did not pick her instead. Murrue Ramius had know a brief time of happiness in the time they started dating, and with the burden of being in command, and the war she knew that the times he and her could enjoy a brief moment to be romantic with each other was getting to be less and less. She wanted to share a nice chat, a good meal, maybe an excuse to get closer and being held in his arms, such as dancing. The taste and feel of his lips on hers. There were many things that she wanted, and many things they had yet to do. But the damn war kept interfering in their love life. She knew that earlier the next day that ZAFT would attack, but how could they evade the attack. The odds where against them, how could she make sure her beloved would live? How would she keep the people of this ship safe? and finally How long was Kira going to keep her longing till he finally claimed what was rightfully his? Some of the bridge crew joked that the Captain needed a good shag. Natarle pretended to be upset, and put a stop to those comments, but deep down inside Murrue was saying something completely unexpected. "If they only knew how much that is true, Come on Kira, stop the enemy claim victory, and then come to my quarters and claim me! or else I will go to yours!"

Kira suddenly had the earnest desire to build better locks on his quarters and sound proof them, for some odd reason he felt that he would really need that. Mu joked that at least it could keep unwanted guests to interrupt him with his girlfriend. Kira wanted to seriously punch Mu in the gut, but he simply asked him if he was still sore that he was dating the Captain and she was not available anymore. Mu laughed at his comment, "Oh, don't worry about it. Natarle is not such a bad looking woman after all." Kira quickly told him to never tell her that. Mu simply asked which one of them was the kid and who was the adult? Kira simply told him, "I will leave you to figure that out as your homework. 3 Pages, single spaced 12 type font. I expect it by the day after tomorrow." The crew that had been near the two as they worked to maintain their machines began to laugh. Chief Murdock simply ended the laughter and said, "Well, from my point of you. You are all kids, so stop horsing around and finished your work!"

Tomorrow combat was going to start again, and he knew that the least unattended detail could mean death. The slightest crack in the cockpit, that single second a thruster did not engage, or that last missing round in a weapon. These were death especially in space.